At the gate in Canada before staring a recent trip, I was called by name to the podium. Upon arrival at the gate, Alaska inquired if I'd like to go directly to MSP on Delta as opposed to Y__-SEA-MSP. Presuming that they needed the seat because they were oversold, I said that I might be interested and inquired whether there would be any additional consideration/compensation. I was told that there would be no additional consideration/compensation. It seemed like an odd answer to me, but I agreed to the change and took the direct flight, which saw me get into MSP roughly five hours ahead of my originally scheduled arrival.

Why didn't you decline the move and say you'll do it for compensation if that's what you wanted.

I've been in similar situations on other carriers where they want the free win-win bump, and I told them no, I'll only move for comp. They usually oblige.

I indicated that I might be interested and then asked about compensation before any re-routing was done. The Alaska gate agent said that there would be no compensation. I found that strange, but I figured that she must be mistaken (more often than not, gate agents for American carriers seem to get the compensation bit of it wrong in such situations at my airport).

You accepted the reroute with no compensation, and now you want it? Lol

I asked about compensation at the gate and was told that there would be no compensation. Figuring that the gate agent must be mistaken, I then got on to Alaska customer service about it before either flight took off. This seems like pretty lousy customer service to me. I did Alaska a favour; the least that it can do is extend some courtesy compensation to me.

I still fail to grasp your expectation of compensation in exchange for them doing a favour for YOU. If you had demonstrated excessive greed, surely they would have let you keep the five hour layover, and moved on to find others who actually appreciated their kindness.

Did Delta put you on a competitor, and/or add a connection where there hadn't previously been one? Or were you delayed substantially as a result? In other words, did you accept a routing that was noticeably worse than what you'd previously held with them? If so, that would easily explain their desire to provide you with such generous compensation.

If Delta were putting you on another Delta flight, nonstop, and getting you to your destination at the same time or earlier, I'd doubt they'd offer you anything other than a thank you and a smile as well since they're actually improving your experience, not negatively impacting it. That's what compensation is generally for - apologizing when your experience has been degraded.

Delta put me on a competitor, in the same class of travel, with a single connection to STL -- not unlike the single connection that I had on Delta -- and the rerouting got me to STL earlier than if I had insisted on flying the ticket as booked on Delta. Delta gave me a $1000 pre-paid American Express as thanks, as well as 3,000 SkyMiles for all of the messing around that I had to do. My experience doesn't seem to be uncommon on Delta if Internet anecdote is to be believed.

I still fail to grasp your expectation of compensation in exchange for them doing a favour for YOU.

I did them the favour. Arriving earlier to MSP made exactly no difference to me. In fact, I had to find a way to kill a few hours, so I went to Mall of America shortly after checking in to my hotel and wandered aimlessly. It's not like the MSP airport area is buzzing with interesting things to do. I was only scheduled to overnight there en route to Ireland the next day.

For those of us who place value on time, 5 hours saved is a gift, and looking gift horses in the mouth is greedy. Again, I get the fact that you don't care about time, but others do.

While you're perfectly entitled to your opinion, the fact that you have an opinion doesn't make it fact. I resent being called greedy when all I did was write to see whether courtesy compensation on Alaska, similar to what I've received from a direct competitor of Alaska in the recent past, isn't a thing. You might have been triggered by my characterization of the situation as a raw deal, but when how Alaska handled this is compared to how Delta handled a similar situation in which I was involved less than a year ago, I don't know how one could feel that Alaska is competitive on this front.

I still fail to grasp your expectation of compensation in exchange for them doing a favour for YOU. If you had demonstrated excessive greed, surely they would have let you keep the five hour layover, and moved on to find others who actually appreciated their kindness.

Right, there were times where I've offered to pay to get to my destination either earlier or in a more direct route, even if it meant having to go on Y. Unless it's an unusually long flight, F/J/Y is secondary to route and eta. Having said that, I think the the OP is well within his right, of course, to negotiate a deal, but it has to be done before, and not after. As saliently observed, there would have been many who would have offered "help" AS with a more direct route and earlier arrival.

A deal is a deal. Like buyer's remorse, it's just sour grapes at this point.